Describe artificial intelligence and contrast the human mind and the computer as information processors.

Describe the structure of language.

Trace the course of language acquisition and discuss alternative theories of language development.

Describe the research on animal communication and discuss the controversy over whether animals have language.

Discuss the relationship between thought and language. (Whorf’s linguistic relativity)

Unit 7 OverviewThe cognition and language unit explores human memory as a system that processes information in three steps. Encoding refers to the process of putting information into the memory system. Storage is the purely passive mechanism by which information is maintained in memory. Retrieval is the process by which information is accessed from memory through recall or recognition.

This unit also discusses the important role of meaning, imagery, and organization in encoding new memories, how memory is represented physically in the brain, and how forgetting may result from failure to encode or store information or to find appropriate retrieval cues. The chapter discusses the issue of memory construction. How “true” are our memories of events? A particularly controversial issue in this area involves children’s memories of sexual abuse.Most of the cognition and language unit deals with thinking, with emphasis on how people logically-or at times illogically—use tools such as algorithms and heuristics when making decisions and solving problems. Also discussed are several common obstacles to problem solving, including fixations that prevent us from taking a fresh perspective on a problem and our bias to search for information that confirms rather than challenges existing hypotheses.

The unit also explores how computer systems have been constructed to simulate the neural networks of the human brain. By mimicking the ways in which human neural networks interconnect, computers enable scientists to study how human systems process sensations and memories and how the thought process works.

The rest of the unit is concerned with language, including its structure, development in children, use by animals, and relationship to thinking. Two theories of language acquisition are evaluated: Skinner’s theory that language acquisition is based entirely on learning, and Chomsky’s theory that humans have a biological predisposition to acquire language.